Flexing Our Frugal Muscles: Part 1

Recalibrating our discretionary spending — and saving money.

Frugality has never been at the core of our financial independence (FI) strategy. That’s not to say we aren’t mindful of how we spend, but we’ve never had to worry too much about day-to-day spending. With relatively low fixed expenses, two incomes, and no kids, saving money just wasn’t that difficult.

Things are a bit different these days. After moving, reducing Mr. FF’s income, and having a baby, saving money isn’t so simple.

This is by no means panic mode — we planned for this temporary cash crunch and have savings to cover the gap — but what if we took this as an opportunity to flex our frugal muscles instead?

How much could we cut back temporarily, and how might it change our spending habits long-term?

Over time, we get used to a certain level of spending, and the small luxuries we built into our budget become our new baseline for “normal”. Suddenly, what we once considered a splurge starts to feel restrictive.

This is something we have noticed over the past few years, particularly when it comes to discretionary spending. The more we’ve loosened the purse strings on certain spending habits, the less joy and satisfaction this spending seems to bring.

Perhaps a temporary pause is just what we need to recalibrate.

By cutting back some of our discretionary spending, we’ll get a chance to see where we miss it most (and where we don’t). And hopefully, we’ll even find a few frugal alternatives along the way.

As a bonus, this spending pause will minimize the impact on our savings during our current cash crunch.

To get started, we’ll be reviewing our budget one line item at a time with the goal of finding $500 to shave off of our biweekly spending. Stay tuned for a list of budget cuts next week!

Thanks for reading! To learn more about our journey, visit Financially Free 2033.

Linked Articles in this Post:
Our Journey to Financial Independence
Financial Remodel